Caterpillar Announces Retirement of Long-Time Officer

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Sep 22, 2015, 09:00 ET

PEORIA, Ill., Sept. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a distinguished career in which he built and strengthened Caterpillar's Global Mining business, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) today announced the retirement of Chris Curfman, vice president with responsibility for the Mining Sales & Support Division. Curfman's retirement will be effective December 31, 2015.

Chris Curfman, vice president of Caterpillar's Mining Sales & Support Division

"Chris leaves a lasting, customer-focused legacy at Caterpillar that is unrivaled and likely to be unmatched," said Ed Rapp, Caterpillar group president with responsibility for Resource Industries. "Chris built incredibly close customer relationships and has been critical to our success in the mining industry. Under Chris' leadership we have established a global leadership position."

As a young man, prior to joining Caterpillar, Curfman operated Caterpillar construction machinery. He then worked for several years as a sales coordinator for Wallace Machinery, a Cat dealer in California, before a 15-year career at Deere & Company. Curfman joined Caterpillar in 1994, serving as the rental and used equipment manager for North America. In 1999, Curfman became the managing director of Caterpillar of Australia Ltd., based in Melbourne. In 2001, he became managing director of marketing for Caterpillar's Asia Pacific Division at its headquarters in Singapore. In 2004, Curfman became vice president of the Global Mining Division.

"While Chris is primarily known for his role in leading our mining business, he also laid the foundation for our entry into rental services and integrated our sales and marketing organization during his time in Asia. With his retirement from Caterpillar, it will mark the end of a remarkable run of more than 60 years of values-based Curfman leadership at the company, as Chris' father was a long-time and well respected leader with Caterpillar until his retirement in 1990 after more than 40 years with the company," Rapp added.

About Caterpillar
For 90 years, Caterpillar Inc. has been making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent. Customers turn to Caterpillar to help them develop infrastructure, energy and natural resource assets. With 2014 sales and revenues of $55.184 billion, Caterpillar is the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. The company principally operates through its three product segments - Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation - and also provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. For more information, visit caterpillar.com. To connect with us on social media, visit caterpillar.com/social-media.

Forward-looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release relate to future events and expectations and are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "believe," "estimate," "will be," "will," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "plan," "project," "intend," "could," "should" or other similar words or expressions often identify forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our outlook, projections, forecasts or trend descriptions. These statements do not guarantee future performance, and we do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.

Caterpillar's actual results may differ materially from those described or implied in our forward-looking statements based on a number of factors, including, but not limited to: (i) global and regional economic conditions and economic conditions in the industries we serve; (ii) government monetary or fiscal policies and infrastructure spending; (iii) commodity price changes, component price increases, fluctuations in demand for our products or significant shortages of component products; (iv) disruptions or volatility in global financial markets limiting our sources of liquidity or the liquidity of our customers, dealers and suppliers; (v) political and economic risks, commercial instability and events beyond our control in the countries in which we operate; (vi) failure to maintain our credit ratings and potential resulting increases to our cost of borrowing and adverse effects on our cost of funds, liquidity, competitive position and access to capital markets; (vii) our Financial Products segment's risks associated with the financial services industry; (viii) changes in interest rates or market liquidity conditions; (ix) an increase in delinquencies, repossessions or net losses of Cat Financial's customers; (x) new regulations or changes in financial services regulations; (xi) a failure to realize, or a delay in realizing, all of the anticipated benefits of our acquisitions, joint ventures or divestitures; (xii) international trade policies and their impact on demand for our products and our competitive position; (xiii) our ability to develop, produce and market quality products that meet our customers' needs; (xiv) the impact of the highly competitive environment in which we operate on our sales and pricing; (xv) failure to realize all of the anticipated benefits from initiatives to increase our productivity, efficiency and cash flow and to reduce costs; (xvi) additional restructuring costs or a failure to realize anticipated savings or benefits from past or future cost reduction actions; (xvii) inventory management decisions and sourcing practices of our dealers and our OEM customers; (xviii) compliance with environmental laws and regulations; (xix) alleged or actual violations of trade or anti-corruption laws and regulations; (xx) additional tax expense or exposure; (xxi) currency fluctuations; (xxii) our or Cat Financial's compliance with financial covenants; (xxiii) increased pension plan funding obligations; (xxiv) union disputes or other employee relations issues; (xxv) significant legal proceedings, claims, lawsuits or government investigations; (xxvi) changes in accounting standards; (xxvii) failure or breach of IT security; (xxviii) adverse effects of unexpected events including natural disasters; and (xxix) other factors described in more detail under "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 17, 2015, for the year ended December 31, 2014.

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